“He became more embittered, more cynical, more harsh, more uncompromising, more edgy, more volatile than ever.”

Lewisohn has taken a decade to research and write the 1,000-page book, which follows the group through childhood to 1962.

Lennon had an unorthodox and sometimes controversial relationship with his mother, who taught him to play banjo and bought him his first guitar.

She had given him to her sister, Mimi, to raise but from about the age of 14, Lennon started to spend more time with his mother, eventually moving into the home she shared with her new partner, John ‘Bobby’ Dykins, and their two young daughters.

However in 1958, Dykins was charged with drink driving. He was banned from driving and lost his job. It was this incident, writes Lewisohn, that led Julia to travel to her sister’s on the day of her death and ask her if Lennon could move back in as they were struggling financially. As she walked home she was hit by the car and died instantly aged 44.

The driver – Eric Clague – was a learner who should not have been on the road unaccompanied. Lennon believed he was drunk but there was no mention of alcohol at the inquest, and he was never charged.